Oscars. Oscars. Oscars

31012006

The most absolutest funnest thing about the Oscar nominations (save for the fact that, in a rare sense of retribution for forcing East Coasters to stay up past midnight to watch the actual ceremony, they announce the nominations at the ungodly hour of something like 5am LA time — to fit the New York time zone news cycles) is that it leads to so much useless pontificating about Trends In The Industry. Then, about two days after the awards, the American Public goes back to watching what it damn well cares about — which generally means that Deuce Bigelow will still trump Capote when all is said and done.

In any case, we’re about to have another year of “It’s The Independents Who Know What’s Up” type of commentary. Of course, they’re right in one way. But, after having been to a Sundance Festival just last weekend, where every major independent film was completely dependent on star casting to get a release, it’s hard to work up much enthusiasm. Does anyone really think that the people who work on $60 million films care less about their product, than the maker of a $60 thousand dollar film? I’ve worked on cheap films and expensive films and I’ve never met anyone who didn’t give a shit about their work. When I was on The Cotton Club, Coppola once threw a fit on stage because (as he put it) “I’ve got sixty million bucks and it still seems like a fuckin’ low budget film.” Which I took to mean that he still wasn’t able to craft the film to his liking because of budget constraints.

Sure, he was whining, but can anyone tell me that Chumscrubbers was a better film than Godfater 1?

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Oh, any in case you cared, I’m actually pretty stoked that Paradise Now got nominated, and that Brokeback got eight nominations. I doubt it will win half of them, but it’s still great to see a film with that much going for it, actually getting a nomination. When I fill out my ballot, I usually assume that most of my picks won’t end up on the nomination list. So, for those who were wondering, here was my list of the top films of the year (of the ones I saw — admittedly a limited list) in alphabetical order.

Brokeback Mountain

Capote

Constant Gardener

Crash (sorta)

Good Night and Good Luck (sorta)

The History of Violence

Howl’s Moving Castle

Last Days

Look At Me (sorta)

Matador

Paradise Now

The Squid and the Whale

Transamerica

Weather Man

I’m actually kinda stoked that so many of them ended up getting nominated.

About Norman Hollyn

Norman Hollyn has been described as a “media expert,” a reference to his experience in a wide variety of media types – in both the old and new media worlds.

He is a long-time film, television and music editor (HEATHERS, THE COTTON CLUB, SOPHIE’S CHOICE, Oliver Stone’s WILD PALMS), and is Associate Professor and Head of the Editing Track at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. He is an author of nearly 100 articles and his book, THE FILM EDITING ROOM HANDBOOK, has been internationally translated. His new book, THE LEAN FORWARD MOMENT, comes out from Peachpit Press/Pearson in December.

He has taught worldwide, including several workshops for the Royal Film Commission in Jordan. He has taught at the Sundance Film Festival, and consults and speaks at major corporations such as Dreamworks Pictures and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has worked as an expert witness in legal cases involving the aesthetics or history of editing, and is partner in an Internet development firm. He presently editing and co-directing a documentary about architecture called OFF THE GRID and editing an international long-distance collaborative documentary called RIVERS.